A collaborative project spearheaded by investigative-journalism group ProPublica, in partnership with a range of other US media outlets, has launched a free, interactive database listing pharmaceutical-company payments to individual physicians. So far, the database includes payments made by seven of the biggest pharmaceutical companies—some of which the US Department of Justice has required to disclose physician payments as part of settlement agreements—which account for a boggling $258 million to roughly 17 700 doctors. The plan is to add 70 more companies.

This database actually lists big pharma payments to doctors of all sorts, not only cardiologists. Some of the doctors taking such kickbacks from the pharmaceutical companies are psychiatrists.

Serious conflict of interest issues are involved here. When a doctor puts profits before people in this fashion, the health of patients will suffer. Many of the drugs used in the treatment of psychiatric conditions either work no better than a placebo, or they shorten the lifespan of the person taking them appreciably. Physicians should be more concerned about advancing the health of their patients than they are with lining their wallets with blood money from the pharmaceutical companies. There can be no doubt about the matter, this practice has lead to iatrogenic conditions patients have developed, many of which have lead directly to the deaths of patients.

The 10 highest-paid physicians in 2009-2010 for each of the seven companies are listed on the site, spanning all medical disciplines but including a handful of cardiologists. ProPublica researchers also compiled a list of health providers who were paid at least $100 000 (typically from more than one company) over the past 18 months, turning up 384 names, including 41 who earned more than $200 000 through speaking or consulting arrangements and two who earned over $300 000, from one or more of the seven companies.

With a little bit of time and effort anybody can now find out what psychiatrists are in bed with the pharmaceutical industry in their own locality within the continental USA by going to the ProPublica website, and investigating the matter personally.

I went through the list of 384 names taking in more than $100,000, and I came up with the following 9 psychiatrists in my home state of Florida. Distressingly, number 2 among these psychiatrists is practicing in my home town of Gainesville.

You may not think of $100,000 as very much money, but it is a lot to some people. $100,000 may not pay a psychiatrists salary, but it would pay the yearly salaries of 3 college educated white collar workers. Very disturbing if you consider that these funds are subsidiary to the money the psychiatrist pulls in from his or her practice.

More psychiatrists are listed in the database than any other kind of specialist. Of the 384 physicians in the $100,000 group, 116 are psychiatrists. Leading all psychiatrists was Roueen Rafeyan, MD, in Chicago, Illinois, who received $203,936 from Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, and Pfizer, mostly for professional education programs.

As the stats from this database indicate, pharmaceutical companies must be into psychiatrists in a way that they are into no other specialty claiming to be a branch of medical science. There is absolutely no way that, as research has shown it does, such connections do not effect a psychiatrist’s private practice. For this reason, we need to keep a vigilant check on this funding, and make sure doctors don’t let profiteering on drug company initiatives cloud their concern for the health and welfare of their patients.

Update 10/24/10

Dr. John Grohol in his World of Psychiatry blog at PsychCentral just published a list of the Top 50 Psychiatrists Paid by Drug Companies in the USA. This list was compiled using the ProPublica database. Included among those top 50 psychiatrists were the top 2 psychiatrists from our above list of Florida psychiatrists in the hire of the drug industry, Rex Birkmire and Lawrence Reccoppa. Dr. Birkmire was way up there in the top 10 of highest paid psychiatrists, coming in at #9, while Dr. Reccoppa was ranked #17.

7 Responses

To see Dr. Birkmire’s name on this list is not surprising at all. He kept my daughter over-medicated for a long period of time and after we finally switched psych docs because of his unethical behavior, he refuses to release her records. Guess he has a lot to hide

Investigative journalists and bloggers in other states have picked up on the biggest offenders in their own states as well. The doctors on this list are those with the most financial ties to the pharmaceutical companies in Florida. Those doctors who are working for the drug companies are definitely not as likely to have a patient’s best interests in mind as are doctors with no ties to drug companies. I would definitely have major qualms about sending a loved one to any of the names listed on this list.

I am intrigued by your reply, I am desperately searching for a psychiatrist for my son who I believe has serious sensory Processing issues…I have been researching Dr. Berkmire and listening to lectures, and was so pleased, but reading the about your daughter has really left me uneasy.
Holly

Holly, you should be uneasy. I’d definitely look into doctors who prescribed pills in moderation, as well as therapists who have more holist approaches. Recovery can only be said to be complete where there has been a complete cessation of psychiatric drugs use. “Medication management” has, as a rule, given long term psychiatric drug use, negative consequences. There is a very real danger, when consulting doctors who over-rely on psychiatric drugs, that the patient may end up with more serious diagnoses than whatever the initial one was. This labeling in turn serves as an excuse for the use of even more powerful psychiatric drugs. All I can say is, when looking for a therapist, be wary, and use your intuition.

I am currently a patient of Dr B. and have been for over 10 years~ and I am not making any progress in life mentaly , in fact im much worse now than when I started treatment~ I dont even know if I have been diagnosed with a mental disorder ~ but have spent over1000.00 a month on medication!! I need serious help!!

You might try a holistic approach that doesn’t involve taking prescription drugs. A lot of people find that once they are put on some of these pharmaceuticals, they need help getting off them. The drugs have negative effects on performance and health. Disorder symptoms and drug effects are often confused by well intentioned professionals.It would be a shame to get worse, but that’s what you must expect from some of these chemicals, especially the neuroleptic (so called anti-psychotic) drugs. There are all these studies showing that “schizophrenia” causes increased positive and negative symptoms, and cognitive decline. As long as these studies don’t factor in prescription drugs effects, I’m inclined to believe that what we are seeing is damage caused by prescription drug use. Until such is factored in, the results should be considered unreliable.